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Loot now, return later.

On the one hand, there’s the new memorandum of uderstanding between China and the US that limits trafficking in cultural artifacts made before 907 A.D. On the other is the article I read in this morning’s NY Times about indepedent collector Li Songtang’s struggling to preseve scraps of old Beijing amid rabid careless redevelopment. According to US Assistant Secretary of state Goli Ameri, the Chinese people are justly proud of their significant and unique heritage, but Mr. Li and UNESCO don’t think so.